Coombs wrote:
Whether folks wanted Wenger out or in, I think a lot of us saw our current predicament on the horizon. Probably all of us, actually. It wasn't ever going to hinge on who the next manager(s) happened to be.
For sure. For me the turning point on Wenger was when we didn't reinforce up front during winter of 2010–11, despite being in a great league position. We used to have discussions about his continuation all the time by that stage, everyone remembers the hardcore naysayers but there were plenty of us out of patience.
There were flashes of opportunity during the remainder of Wenger's time at Arsenal, and each time the story was the same: there was a certain spinelessness, cowardice about grasping chances. The season Leicester won was a particularly glaring example of our lack of resolve, but that was fully five years later.
Replacing Wenger with Emery was never going to totally overturn the culture at the club. Gazidis then ditched us—that really pissed me off to be frank, but he knows how his bed is made—and we also lost Mislintat due to sour grapes about Sanllehi and his dislike of our abandonment of his moneyball principles. That seemed like a bad outcome to me at the time and I think that's borne out in some of our rotten signings since.
Slating it all back to the Kroenkes is reasonable. An engaged owner would've defended us from some of the above. But either way the club since Wenger has been a chaotic plaything for people who have selfishly contended with each other or lacked the dedication and talent we need.
This is one of the reasons I don't think there's any quick fix at managerial level. The post-Wenger structure has never succeeded so how can there be faith in it? The whole thing's a messy work in progress.
